Five Holy Cross College salutatorians have been named for the class of 2026. Hailing from places nationally and globally, students share their experiences at the College and their future plans.
Mark Franco
A senior originally from Whittier, California, attended an all-boys high school, which led to choosing Holy Cross as his second choice following Notre Dame. He was able to obtain the Moreau scholarship, which also allowed him to be part of the Pathways program, where he will go on to earn a Master of Science in finance after graduation. Following the program, he hopes to work for a sports team as a financial analyst.
He shared that one of the most crucial quotes that he remembered from Holy Cross was one given by his freshman adviser, who said, “You’re a big fish in a small pond.” He was able to utilize that to his fullest during his time by becoming a tutor in discrete mathematics, business and finance.
As a business major with a sport, culture and formation minor, he noted that there were some differences between the majors at the College in comparison to Mendoza College of Business, in terms of the fact that Mendoza focuses more on specialization, while at the College, it is broader. He found challenges in having a prerequisite pathway to pursue a master’s degree within the Pathways program.
“For my pathway being at MSF, but also this is for the kids doing the analytics masters, the accounting masters, the nonprofit masters, there was not many classes that were tailored, in a sense, for us to have a prerequisite background,” he said. “There was no formalized prereq pathway for us in the sense, it was more just [that] you’re kind of on your own, in a sense.”
During his time at Holy Cross, he was able to pursue strategic management research within a business class and played on the men’s golf team.
He shared that it was an unexpected honor to receive salutatorian recognition by the Department of Business and looks forward to carrying the honor in the future.
“Our provost said something that solus, or what salutatorian means in Latin, solus means greeting. And I think a salutatorian goes beyond academia in the classroom, I believe, they’re supposed to be the greeter of wherever they go,” he shared. “If it’s in college, if it’s in the workplace, if it’s in the community, or a charity event for a nonprofit, just anywhere outside of it. That’s what a salutatorian is, someone who’s welcoming, it’s someone who respects others’ perspectives, nationality, ethnicity, in that sense.”
Evelyn Baldwin
A native of South Bend, Indiana, Baldwin was interested in attending Holy Cross after undergoing double brain surgery to ensure that she was near her family due to ongoing health issues. Despite originally wanting to attend Arizona State University, she received a phone call from Holy Cross awarding her a full-ride scholarship.
Baldwin shared a family history with Notre Dame.
She said, “One of my great-grandfathers, he built the head of construction at the stadium. And then my other one was recruited by Knute Rockne.”
Baldwin explained that one of her favorite service opportunities was a weeklong internship trip to Maȟpíya Lúta on the Pine Ridge Renovation in South Dakota — an opportunity communicated to her by educator formation program coordinator Annette Romans. This experience inspired her to work on a bookmobile for a paid internship of three months.
“We traveled across North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, but our main spot was St. Joseph’s Indian School in Chamberlain, South Dakota, and so we just got to be immersed within the community and to deliver books,” she said. “I just got to play with kids and read with kids, and then talk to the community members, to the point where I was at a bar and I found a frog in the bathroom, so I made the frog my pet that night … Just being able to be welcomed into the community out there by the Lakota tribe was amazing, and their generosity and their love.”
The elementary education major will be pursuing a full-time teaching position in West Virginia for 2-year-olds following graduation. She has been recognized as salutatorian on behalf of the Department of Social Sciences.
Nicholet Zabuna
A biology major from Uganda, Zabuna attended Holy Cross High School and met Holy Cross College students, who prompted her interest in the College. By going to the College, she felt that she would be able “to continue in the Holy Cross education.”
As she adjusted to the College, she noted some challenges along the way, including a language barrier and educational differences between Uganda and the United States.
“There’s been so many hardships, of course, transferring from Uganda to America. The first thing was language [and] writing [as] English was hard for me, but I learned with time. And then also, the way of learning in Uganda is so different from how things are done here, so that was another thing I had to adjust to,” she said.
Zabuna explained the educational differences as students in the United States are expected to learn or be knowledgeable through textbook materials before attending the class, while in Uganda, students fully learn and immerse themselves within the class space.
Throughout her time at Holy Cross, she has immersed herself in various projects. She was a part of a lead research project, where they tested different levels of lead in stained glass present in chapels around South Bend. She is part of an ongoing biology research project on how melatonin affects the circadian rhythm in sleep cycles. She worked as an assistant hall director and a cantor in a church, where she learned about how to be out of her shell in the campus community
Additionally, she shared about being president of Laudato Si at Holy Cross, where they are now in the process of establishing their own community garden.
“Me and my fellow leaders were able to be part of the Holy Cross day fundraising money to start a garden, because we saw the garden that Saint Mary’s has and were really inspired to try and do something like that, or something like the Unity garden,” she said. “Of the $4,000 that we’re looking for, we were able to raise about $3,400, so about 74% of it.”
She shared her excitement when she initially found out that she would be named as one of the salutatorians for the class of 2026, specifically for the Department of Natural and Quantitative Sciences.
“I was very surprised, very excited. I cried [and] my mom cried. So all of us are very happy … But that was a very good honor, it’s so rewarding, and I feel like with the amount of work I’m putting, it was well deserved at the end,” Zabuna said.
After graduation, she plans to work at Memorial Hospital in an intensive care unit.
Maribelle Rivera
A first-generation college student from South Bend, Indiana, Maribelle Rivera was looking to stay local and maintain a small class size, and Holy Cross College fit the requirements.
Initially planning to be a psychology major, she switched and became a visual arts major following her freshman year after recommendation from a professor. She will also graduate with a minor in education.
Her portfolio represents her journey through the visual arts major, beginning with an emphasis on food, her work as a junior and senior considers broader theological themes surrounding food, prompted by a Notre Dame theology course.
“And I took this idea from the class, and I was like, ‘I want to put this into my artwork, somehow,’ because I felt deeply inspired by it,” she said. “I started focusing more on creating pieces that focused on table settings where people were currently eating. Where a meal was finished to sort of symbolize when we come together to share a meal, like we’re brought together in communion, and we’re building these relationships.”
In alignment with her portfolio and major, she also served as the president of the visual arts club, where she was able to collaborate with other organizational leaders and host trips to art museums in Chicago. She is a former communications intern at the Office of Student Activities.
She hopes that for students pursuing a visual arts degree, they will note, “It’s not all just like you get to color for homework. It’s going to take time, it’s going to take hard work and dedication. But once you find your thing, stick to it, don’t be afraid to experiment with different mediums and if you have an idea, go for it [as it] doesn’t have to be perfect.”
In the end, she hopes to become a high school art teacher. In the meantime, she will be a paraprofessional in a third-grade classroom after graduation and may return to obtain a Master of Fine Arts after she builds out her portfolio.
She has been named salutatorian for the Department of Humanities.
Mateo Cruz Mendoza
Mateo Cruz Mendoza is recognized as one of the salutatorians for the Class of 2026 from the Moreau College Initiative.
The initiative is a partnership between Notre Dame and the College to provide undergraduate degrees to incarcerated men at Westville Correctional Facility. Tri-campus professors teach courses for students to earn an Associate of Arts or a Bachelor of Arts degree.
